'GMA' Exclusive: Women Bond and Battle After Alleged Sexual Assault
"GMA" Exclusive: Two women bond after they were allegedly raped by the same man.
Aug. 18, 2009— -- Julie Stene and Monique Gillaspie live hundreds of miles apart, but say they are bound together by their shared nightmare: being allegedly raped by the same man. Now the women are drawing strength from each other and fighting for justice they say was never served.
Nine years ago, Stene, now 27-years-old, says she woke up in the passenger seat of her car too drunk to remember what had happened the night before at her raucous high school graduation party.
"When I woke up I was wearing someone else's shirt," Stene said, adding she was half naked and caked in mud. "I mean, obviously something had happened. I was in severe pain."
Stene, a popular former cheerleader, immediately went to the hospital and reported the incident to the police. Investigators found evidence, including DNA, that tied one of her classmates, Clyde Surrell, to the alleged attack.
Surrell, a star quarterback on his way to the University of Colorado on a scholarship, and one of his friends admitted they had sex with Stene that night but claimed it was consensual.
Yet the investigation stalled. Stene said that the attack and her father's death around the same time left her without the strength to press charges, and her case was dropped.
"I feel like I've been hiding ever since the rape happened," Stene told ABC News. "When things like this happen, it's made to feel that you're the one that did something wrong."
